Charities

In all the talk of tackling child poverty, one group has been largely ignored, children of refugees and asylum seekers. Stephen Crossley reports on poverty amongst this 'minority within a minority' and the role local agencies should play.

The combined impact of benefits reform and public sector cuts is putting huge strains on a welfare system already 'buckling' in the face of growing demand and underfunding, according to a think-tank report. The long-term result is that social crises are likely to build up  leading to unsustainable human, social and economic costs.

The report is the outcome of an 18-month project with people in some of the most deprived communities in Birmingham and Haringey (London), designed to explore their experiences of the government’s austerity measures and its ambitions for building a ‘Big Society’.

A record-breaking 100,000 people have received emergency food from foodbanks in the space of just six months, according to the Trussell Trust charity. Three new foodbanks are opening every week to help meet the growing demand for emergency food.

The charity warns that Christmas 2012 is looking even bleaker for families on the breadline, as rises in food and fuel bills over the winter could force more people into a crisis where they cannot afford to eat. It also points out that fewer than 5 per cent of foodbank clients are homeless, and that many are working families struggling to make ends meet.

The Trussell Trust operates the UK's only national network of foodbanks, in partnership with churches and community organisations. The foodbanks provide a minimum of three days emergency food to people in crisis. Foodbank recipients are referred by a frontline care professional such as a doctor, social worker or schools liaison officer.

A major charity has launched its first-ever appeal designed to help tackle child poverty in the UK. To accompany the appeal launch, Save the Children published a report highlighting children's – as well as parents’ – experiences of living in recession-hit Britain, and the extent to which poverty is blighting young lives.

Thousands of people in Scotland are being forced to rely on charities for food handouts, according to new evidence. A report charts the numbers of clients of Scottish citizen's advice bureaux who have made a charitable application, and also records information from charities themselves about the increasing demand for food parcels. Problems in the benefits system are identified as the major factor.

The government’s austerity strategy is disproportionately hurting those on the lowest incomes, according to an Oxfam report. It describes a ‘perfect storm’ of factors – increasing unemployment, a lack of decent jobs, rising living costs, falling incomes and deep cuts to welfare and public services – hitting the most vulnerable people, both in and out of work.

The report combines an analysis of the recession’s effects with a series of policy recommendations.

A charity chief has warned of hardening public attitudes to people in poverty, resulting in an increasing divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. He said plans to cut billions from public services risk creating a ‘forgotten Britain’ where the plight of ‘whole swathes of society is getting worse but is invisible to the rest of us’.

Sir Stephen Bubb, head of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, made his comments in a speech in London.

Homelessness and levels of rough sleeping are increasing as a result of deep cuts to hostel and housing services, according to a survey of homeless charities, Homeless Watch, a survey of needs and provisions 2012. The survey carried out in November 2011 by the charity, Homeless Link, finds that:

Increasing numbers of families and adults are relying on food handouts to get by according to reports from a number of charities. The charity FareShare, which redistributes waste food from major food manufacturers and supermarkets to social care charities, has seen a 20 per cent rise in the number of people it is feeding – from 29,500 a year to 35,000.

FareShare, which operates from 17 sites across the UK, has also seen a rise in the number of charities that have signed up to receive food for distributuon in the past 12 months, from 600 to 700. More than 40 per cent of those charities are recording increases in demand for their feeding services of up to 50 per cent.

Another charity, the Trussell Trust, says the charity’s foodbanks will feed up to 130,000 people in 2011/12, but says that the country actually needs about 1,000 foodbanks to ensure most people have access to one.

PSE:UK is a major collaboration between the University of Bristol, Heriot-Watt University, The Open University, Queen's University Belfast, University of Glasgow and the University of York working with the National Centre for Social Research and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. ESRC Grant RES-060-25-0052.